Realtree's Deer Hunting Forecast | October 17-24
Posted 2025-10-17 by
Hints of the pre-rut are in the air, and in many parts of the country, a cold front is in the forecast
The early season is great, with those velvet antlers, green soybeans, and predictable bucks. But let’s not kid ourselves: We live for hunting the rut. Now that we’re officially into late October, our rut hunting strategies can begin. In most places, bucks won’t be running does or doing any breeding for several more weeks, but the opening acts are about to take the stage. Rubs and scrapes are popping up all over the deer woods, the days are getting dramatically shorter, and there’s finally a little chill to the morning air. The weeks ahead are the best ones of deer season—but right now, things can still be a little tough.
We bring you weekly regional Rut Reports all season on Realtree.com, as well as a new weekly Deer Hunting Forecast each Friday. That forecast is based on the intel provided by our rut reporters, data from our Fish & Game Forecaster, the weather forecast, and the decades of whitetail hunting experience that has been accrued by Team Realtree.
The next week looks to be an OK one for whitetail hunters nationwide, with the usual regional ups and downs. Deer activity can be very localized, of course. If you have a ripe white oak tree raining acorns—or the first hot doe of the season—near your stand, the action can seem red hot when everyone else around you is complaining of slow movement. Regardless of what our forecast or any other one says, the best time to go hunting is whenever you can. Never forget that.
MOON AND WEATHER
As for this week in particular, we’re right on the cusp of the pre-rut in most of the country. It’s been hot and dry in much of the nation so far this fall, and many areas have experienced severe drought. There’ve been some pretty devastating deer kills in some areas because of EHD (more on that from the regional rut reporters below). But it seems there’s light at the end of the tunnel, as a big cold front is forecast to sweep across the center of the country over the weekend, bringing some much-needed moisture to parched areas and, hopefully, seasonal fall temperatures. The moon is waning now, with the new moon on Oct. 21. Realtree’s Fish & Game Forecaster predicts good movement for the next several days, with some midday peaks. We don’t expect to see many bucks up cruising for does just yet, but it wouldn’t be out of the question for a mature buck to be on his feet a little earlier than normal in the evenings after the front passes through. Keep monitoring good food sources with trail cameras, but keep an eye on active scrapes as well. This is the week to begin using deer calls, too; grunts and bleats, and even light rattling sequences will be productive. Keep filling doe tags, but in the next few days, it can be smart to take the pressure off the does and begin patterning family groups. If you know where they’re feeding and hanging out from about Halloween to mid-November, you have a good starting point for the rut.
Overall, we give this week’s deer hunting forecast 2.5 out of 5 stars.
REGIONAL UPDATES
Northeast Rut Reporter Timothy Kent is from New York, and he says that despite the hot, dry summer, most of the region seems to have been spared from the ravages of EHD this year. There have already been multiple reports of successful early season hunts, many of which happened under productive oak trees dropping acorns. Kent says that a cold front brought some needed change to the region a week ago, and a Nor’easter is currently soaking parts of Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Kent advises northeastern hunters to stick to the food sources right now, acorns and green fields in particular, and be mindful of too much hunting pressure. It’s just about to get good, but we’re not quite there yet.
READ THE FULL NORTHEAST RUT REPORT HERE
Midwest Rut Reporter Darron McDougal hails from Wisconsin, where he manages his home property for wildlife but also travels extensively on DIY public-land bowhunts. McDougal has already profiled several successful Wisconsin hunters for the Realtree Rack Report, and he says that daylight buck activity is just beginning to increase, with plenty of little bucks moving in the evenings and beginning to spar. Though some cropfields are being cut, McDougal says there’s still a lot of standing corn on the landscape, and many deer are holed up within the rows. His contacts throughout the region reported on much the same, with just the first hints of the pre-rut in the air. Of course, there’ve been some devastating deer kills in parts of the Midwest because of EHD, particularly in Ohio.
READ THE FULL MIDWEST RUT REPORT HERE
Southeast Rut Reporter Stephanie Mallory is from Alabama, and she says hunters have endured a hot, dry start to early archery season in her region, but change is in the air. A cold front and super moon last week caused a flurry of buck activity on the trail cams from several of Mallory’s contacts. A heavy mast crop in much of the region has the deer feeding in the timber, where they’re a bit more difficult to pattern than they are on fields. Acorns have been the primary choice in parts of the region, but Mallory says that hunters in the Mississippi Delta have been seeing good activity around persimmons. Some areas of the Southeast, like in parts of Alabama and Louisiana, won’t see peak rutting activity until well after Christmas, but other areas are just a bit behind or on track with the Midwest in regards to rut timing.
READ THE FULL SOUTHEAST RUT REPORT HERE
Southwest Rut Reporter Miles Fedinec is a Colorado hunting guide and consultant with contacts throughout the region. He’s on the heels of a great elk season in Colorado, and now looking ahead to mule deer in his home state and whitetails and blacktails elsewhere in the region. Recent storms have brought heavy rainfall to the usually dry Southwest (it’s been a weird year), causing flash flooding and mud slides in some areas. Fedinec says the most exciting rut action is happening in parts of California right now with blacktails, but elsewhere the better activity is still a few weeks away.
READ THE FULL SOUTHWEST RUT REPORT HERE
Northwest Rut Reporter Jackie Holbrook says that disease concerns are running high in parts of her region, just as hunting seasons are beginning. There have been EHD outbreaks reported in parts of Washington and Idaho. Although deer numbers are on the rise in Montana, areas of the state are still recovering from severe winter kills and recent EHD outbreaks. Mule deer numbers are especially concerning, while whitetails are faring a bit better. Holbrook says there’s not much to report yet in the way of rutting activity.
